DOCSLIB.ORG

Nakba (Catastrophe)

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Nakba (Catastrophe) Presentation on the Nakba (Catastrophe) By Suhad Bishara Adalah Attorney In 1948, Israel created the Nakba (Catastrophe) and employed four main tools to control the land of Palestine and the Palestinian people. Displacement: creating the problem of the Palestinian refugees, who accounted for around 800,000 Palestinians (85% of the Palestinian population at the time), and who have not been allowed to return to their homes and land. Land Confiscation: The use of the military regime and the enactment of laws, such as the Absentees Property Law and the Acquisition of Land Law, which retroactively validated Israel’s control of land in Palestine. The successive Israeli governments’ policies of land confiscations have brought over 93% of the land in Israel under state control. The Destruction of Villages and the Creation of Internal Refugees: Among the Palestinian minority who remained in Israel are "present absentees" who became refugees in their homeland because the Israeli authorities confiscated their land and destroyed their villages. Today Israel is refusing to allow 250,000 Palestinian citizens of Israel living inside the Green Line who were expelled from their villages during the Nakba to return to their homes and lands. Racial Segregation: As a result of its ideologies and Zionist aims to "render the land Jewish", the Israeli government developed and created a system of racial segregation between Arab and Jewish communities within the state of Israel. To create and maintain the racially segregated land regime Israel used two main tools. JNF land for Jews only: The JNF owns 13% of the land in Israel (about 2.5 million dunams). The JNF declared that its loyalty is only to the Jewish people and not to the general public in Israel, and that it operates only for the benefit of Jewish citizens. Although the JNF claims to have purchased the land within its ownership using money donated by Jews from around the world for the purpose of buying land in Israel and its distribution among Jews, 80% (close to two million dunams) of the JNF's land was transferred to it by the state in 1949 and 1953. These two million dunams were lands which Israel had confiscated from Palestinians. Admissions committees for Jews only: Admissions committees operate in hundreds of local community settlements that fall under the jurisdiction of regional councils all over Israel. They function to exclude Arabs from living in these locations on the basis that the Arab applicants are not "socially suitable". The direct result of this policy is that about 80% of the land in Israel is not accessible to Arab Palestinian citizens. Since 1948 the state of Israel did not establish a single new Arab town or village. On the contrary, Israel is refusing to recognize tens of Arab Bedouin villages in the south where about 80,000 Arab Palestinian Bedouin citizens of Israel live. The villagers are under the constant threat of having their homes demolished and of being evacuated from their villages. The “unrecognized villages,” referred to by the state as “illegal clusters,” have no official status, are absent from state planning and government maps, neither have local councils nor belong to other local governing bodies, and receive little or no basic services such as electricity, water, telephone lines, educational or health facilities. The government views the inhabitants of these villages as “trespassers on state land,” although many of these villages are located on the ancestral lands of the Arab Palestinian Bedouin or the inhabitants were forced to move to their current locations by the military government imposed on the Palestinians in Israel between 1948 and 1966. Under current home demolition and evacuation threats, these Palestinian citizens of Israel thus face the threat of expulsion for a second time. Pictures of unrecognized villages Adjacent to these unrecognized villages the government is encouraging the development of new Jewish "individual settlements" where single Jewish families or Jewish individuals are allowed to control huge areas of land (hundreds to thousands of dunams each) in order to insure exclusive Jewish control over these lands and to prevent any development of Arab villages on them. Pictures of individual settlements In recent years the government also started to use the planning system to build separation walls between Arab and Jewish towns and even neighborhoods. For example, separation walls exist between the Arab neighborhood of Jawarish and the Jewish neighborhood of Gani Dan in the city of Ramleh; the Arab Pardes Sanir neighborhood in the city of Lod and nearby Kibbutz Nir Zvi; and the Arab village of Jisr al-Zarqa and the nearby Jewish town of Caeserea close to Haifa. In 1967, Israel occupied the rest of the Palestinian land and the Syrian Golan Heights; and it seems that history repeats itself. In the territories occupied in 1967 we see Israel practicing the same policies as the ones it practiced in Israel since 1948. Israel is not only controlling the land and the people, but is again confiscating Palestinian land to build Jewish settlements, to build roads exclusively for Jews, including in East Jerusalem, and to build the Wall, which racially segregates Occupied Palestinian Territory from the surrounding Jewish settlements. Since the war of 1948, Israel is continuing to control Palestinian land for the exclusive benefit of the Jewish people and to divide and separate the Palestinian people. The Palestinian refugees were completely separated from their people and lands in 1948 and new Palestinian refugees were created in 1967; the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip became completely separated from those in the West Bank after the disengagement process in 2005; and the Palestinian citizens of the state of Israel were separated from all other Palestinians. In addition to Palestinians being separated from one another, the severe restrictions on the freedom of movement between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and between the various cities in the West Bank has resulted in the creation of Palestinian cantons within the lands controlled by Israel. In this sense the Green Line becomes imaginary and the Israeli "democracy" remains illusionary. Maps of historic Palestine What really remains is: • One Jewish regime which controls all of historic Palestine. In this regime about 50% of the community is Jewish and 50% is Palestinian. • One Israeli supreme parliament which functions as superior to the Palestinian parliament. • One Israeli Supreme Court which has jurisdiction over all the territory. For example, Gaza or Ramallah residents who need to move from one location to the other and who are denied permission to do so have to petition the Supreme Court of Israel. Additionally, family unification applications which are denied end up being appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court. • One Israeli superior army. What really remains is: • Israel is building only Israeli Jewish settlements all over historic Palestine and from both sides of the Green Line. • Freedom of movement is assured and secured for all Jewish people wherever they are in historic Palestine. • Freedom of movement is restricted to the Palestinian people at different levels depending on where they live. • Some Palestinian cantons are created all across historic Palestine. This regime has now been in existence for over 60 years, on the basis of a Zionist ideology to control the “Land of Israel”. Therefore, any democratic agenda must strive to challenge this discriminatory project, in order to create a democratic regime for all..
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Emergent Presence to the Social Structure of the Palestinian Society
    Asian Social Science; Vol. 15, No. 5; 2019 ISSN 1911-2017 E-ISSN 1911-2025 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education Refugee Camps: Emergent Presence to the Social Structure of the Palestinian Society Jawad Dayyeh1 & Bassam Yousef Ibrahim Banat2 1 Social Sciences PhD. Program (Peace & Conflict Research Line), University of Granada, Granada, Spain 2 Department of Applied Sociology, Al-Quds University, Jerusalem- Abu Dies, Palestine Correspondence: Bassam Yousef Ibrahim Banat, Department of Applied Sociology, Faculty of Arts, Al-Quds University, Main Campus, Jerusalem- Abu Dies, Palestine. Tel: 970-2252-2727. E-mail: [email protected] or [email protected] Received: April 11, 2019 Accepted: April 21, 2019 Online Published: April 30, 2019 doi:10.5539/ass.v15n5p95 URL: https://doi.org/10.5539/ass.v15n5p95 Abstract The study aimed to investigate the refugee camps issue as emergent presence to the social structure of the Palestinian society. The study approached the literature as a multi-dimensional phenomenon, which addressed both theoretical and applied research. The findings revealed that the Palestinian camps do not accurately reflect the structure of the Palestinian society, as they are emergent presence to the social structure of the Palestinian society. These camps depict the exposure of the Palestinian diaspora concentrations during the Nakba of 1948 and after the 1967 war. It reflects the social, economic, and cultural conditions of the period resulting from the uprooting of more than one million Palestinians from their cities, villages, and Bedouin sites of origin. Keywords: refugee camps, social structure, diaspora, Nakba 1. Introduction On 15 May 1948, the day that Britain declared an end to its mandate on Palestine, the Zionist movement declared the formation of Israel as a state on 78% of the Palestinian lands.
    [Show full text]
  • The Nakba: 70 Years ON
    May 2018 Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib Photo: A I THE NAKBA: 70 YEARS ON 70 Years of Dispossession, Displacement and Denial of Rights, but also ASS 70 Years of Steadfastness, Self-Respect and Struggle for Freedom and Justice P INTRODUCTION 2018 is the year where Palestinians all over the world remember the 70th anniversary of the Nakba - 70 Years in which they had their civil and national rights trampled on, sacrificed lives and livelihoods, had their land stolen, their property destroyed, promises broken, were injured, insulted and humiliated, endured oppression, dispersion, imprisonment and torture, and witnessed numerous attempts to partition their homeland and divide their people. However, despite all past and ongoing land confiscation, settlement construction, forcible displacements and rights denials, the Zionist movement has failed to empty the country of its indigenous Palestinian inhabitants, whose number has meanwhile increased to an extent that it is about to exceed that of the Jews. Despite all repressions at the hands of the occupier, despite all attempts at erasing or distorting their history and memory, and despite all political setbacks and failed negotiations, Palestinians are still steadfast on their land and resisting occupation. The 1948 Nakba remains the root cause of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and will continue to fuel the Palestinian struggle for freedom and self-determination. As clearly reflected in the ‘Great March of Return’ which began on 30 March 2018 along the Gaza border fence, the Palestinians will not relinquish their historical and legal right of return to their homeland nor their demand that Israel acknowledges Contents: its moral and political responsibility for this ongoing tragedy and the gross injustice inflicted on the Palestinian people.
    [Show full text]
  • PCBS President: Despite Tragic Circumstances, Palestinians Have Multiplied Seven Times Since the Nakba (Catastrophe) of 1948
    PCBS President: Despite tragic circumstances, Palestinians have multiplied seven times since the Nakba (Catastrophe) of 1948 Dr. Luay Shabaneh, President of the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics and National Director of the Population, Housing, and Establishment Census 2007, considered the Nakba of Palestine as a black point of departure in the modern history of the Palestinian people. The Palestinians were driven out of their homeland and their properties, homes were taken away from them, and they were banished and displaced all over the world to face all kinds of suffering and woes. More than three quarters of historic Palestine were occupied in the Nakba of 1948. Moreover, 531 Palestinian towns and villages were destroyed and 85% of the Palestinian population were banished and displaced. Dr. Shabaneh described the situation of the Palestinian people on the eve of the 60th anniversary of the Nakba using the following statistical facts and figures. Nakba: Ethnic cleansing and population replacement Nakba in literary terms is expressive of natural catastrophes such as earthquakes, volcanoes, and hurricanes. However, the Nakba of Palestine is an ethnic cleansing process as well as destruction and banishment of an unarmed nation to be replaced by another nation. Contrary to natural catastrophes, the Palestinian Nakba was the result of man-made military plans and conspiracy of states. unfolded a major tragedy for the Palestinian people. More than 800,000 out of 1.4 million Palestinians (the Palestinian population in 1948 living in 1,300 Palestinian towns and villages) were driven out of their homeland to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, neighboring Arab countries and the remaining countries of the world.
    [Show full text]
  • Palestinian Reconciliation and the Potential of Transitional Justice
    Brookings Doha Center Analysis Paper Number 25, March 2019 Palestinian Reconciliation and the Potential of Transitional Justice Mia Swart PALESTINIAN RECONCILIATION AND THE POTENTIAL OF TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE Mia Swart The Brookings Institution is a nonprofit organization devoted to independent research and policy solutions. Its mission is to conduct high-quality, independent research and, based on that research, to provide innovative, practical recommendations for policymakers and the public. The conclusions and recommendations of any Brookings publication are solely those of its author(s), and do not reflect the views of the Institution, its management, or its other scholars. Brookings recognizes that the value it provides to any supporter is in its absolute commitment to quality, independence and impact. Activities supported by its donors reflect this commitment and the analysis and recommendations are not determined by any donation. Copyright © 2019 Brookings Institution THE BROOKINGS INSTITUTION 1775 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20036 U.S.A. www.brookings.edu BROOKINGS DOHA CENTER Saha 43, Building 63, West Bay, Doha, Qatar www.brookings.edu/doha Table of Contents I. Executive Summary .................................................................................................1 II. Introduction ..........................................................................................................3 III. Background on the Rift Between Fatah and Hamas ...............................................7 IV. The Concept
    [Show full text]
  • Exiled Within Between Citizenship and the Struggle for Return for Internal Palestinian Refugees in Israel
    WORKING PAPER SERIES NO. 134 Exiled within Between citizenship and the struggle for return for internal Palestinian refugees in Israel Haneen Kinani [email protected] March 2021 Refugee Studies Centre Oxford Department of International Development University of Oxford RSC Working Paper Series The Refugee Studies Centre (RSC) Working Paper Series is intended to aid the rapid distribution of work in progress, research findings and special lectures by researchers and associates of the RSC. Papers aim to stimulate discussion among the worldwide community of scholars, policymakers and practitioners. They are distributed free of charge in PDF format via the RSC website. The opinions expressed in the papers are solely those of the author/s who retain the copyright. They should not be attributed to the project funders or the Refugee Studies Centre, the Oxford Department of International Development or the University of Oxford. Comments on individual Working Papers are welcomed, and should be directed to the author/s. Further details can be found on the RSC website (www.rsc.ox.ac.uk). RSC WORKING PAPER SERIES NO. 134 Contents 1 Introduction 1 Framing the ‘internal Palestinian refugees’ 2 Methodology 3 Structure 3 2 Citizenship, the national order of things and the refugee 4 Citizenship and acts of citizenship 4 Citizenship for refugees as re-territorialisation 5 3 A look at history: the events of the 1948 Nakba 7 The Palestinian Nakba 7 UNRWA in Israel 8 4 The provision of citizenship and Israeli policies 10 Military government 1948-1966 10 1950 Absentee Law: appropriation of land and denial of return 11 The Law of Return and the JNF 12 Between history and memory: the role of the Israeli education system 13 Citizenship without recognition 14 5 Politics from below: memory, land and return 15 Adjustment patterns and practices 15 Land Day 1976 17 Madrid, Oslo and the founding of ADRID 18 Acts of citizenship 19 6 Conclusion 21 7 References 24 RSC WORKING PAPER SERIES NO.
    [Show full text]
  • UNRWA: an Indispensable Agency
    University of Windsor Scholarship at UWindsor Major Papers Theses, Dissertations, and Major Papers October 2020 UNRWA: An Indispensable Agency Muhammad Awawdeh University of Windsor, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/major-papers Part of the International Relations Commons, and the Other Political Science Commons Recommended Citation Awawdeh, Muhammad, "UNRWA: An Indispensable Agency" (2020). Major Papers. 144. https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/major-papers/144 This Major Research Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, and Major Papers at Scholarship at UWindsor. It has been accepted for inclusion in Major Papers by an authorized administrator of Scholarship at UWindsor. For more information, please contact [email protected]. UNRWA: An Indispensable Agency By Muhammad Awawdeh A Major Research Paper Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies through the Department of Political Science in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts at the University of Windsor Windsor, Ontario, Canada 2020 © 2020 Muhammad Awawdeh UNRWA: An Indispensable Agency by Muhammad Awawdeh Approved by: R. Bahdi Faculty of Law T. Najem, Advisor Department of Political Science September 15, 2020 DECLARATION OF ORIGINALITY I hereby certify that I am the sole author of this thesis and that no part of this thesis has been published or submitted for publication. I certify that, to the best of my knowledge, my thesis does not infringe upon anyone’s copyright nor violate any proprietary rights and that any ideas, techniques, quotations, or any other material from the work of other people included in my thesis, published or otherwise, are fully acknowledged in accordance with the standard referencing practices.
    [Show full text]
  • CRES 435/535 CRN: 27132/3 Room
    CRES 435/535 ISRAELIS AND PALESTINIANS WINTER 2018 DR. DIANE BAXTER CRN: 27132/3 Room: 282 Knight Law School Office: Condon 373 Office Hours: M 1-3 or by appointment Email: [email protected] Graduate Consultant: Christina Hull, [email protected] Undergraduate Consultants: Abby Rooney, [email protected] Rachel Tarbet, [email protected] The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is, to a large degree, a 20th Century struggle between two peoples over the same land. This conflict over “ownership” of land began in the late 19th Century, intensified in the 20th Century and has not yet resolved in the 21st Century. While the Oslo Accords of 1993 moved in the direction of a settlement and Camp David 2 in 2000 seemed to offer a solution, instead the conflict intensified after negotiations failed at Camp David. Israel is completing the process of building a wall/fence separating parts of the West Bank from Israel and continues to build settlements/housing for Jewish Israelis (in the West Bank) in the area that most peace initiatives stipulate would become an independent Palestinian state. Palestinian governance is split between the Palestinian National Authority (predominately Fatah) and Hamas, which Israel and the United States label a terrorist organization. Factionalism among the Palestinians and Israeli settlement building are two significant factors in the continuing inability to reach a peaceful resolution to the conflict. Both peoples have become deeply disillusioned regarding the possibility of peace. In addition to land, the conflict reflects struggle over historical narration and symbolic interpretations. Whose history has privilege? Whose symbolic attachment to the land, to particular places and spaces is more important? Whose interpretation of history is “more correct?” In this course, we will examine a number of issues related to the Palestinian/Israeli conflict.
    [Show full text]
  • 18 March 2020 the PRE-TRIAL CHAMBER I Before
    ICC-01/18-101-Corr 19-03-2020 1/31 NM PT 22 b Original: English No.: ICC-01/18 Date: 18 March 2020 THE PRE-TRIAL CHAMBER I Before: Judge Péter Kovacs, Presiding Judge Judge Marc Perrin de Brichambaut Judge Reine Adélaïde Sophie Alapini-Gansou “SITUATION IN THE STATE OF PALESTINE” PUBLIC Corrected version of PSE Situation: ICC-01/18-101 + Anxs 1 and 2 March 16, 2020 Observations on behalf of The Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust on “a ruling on the Court’s territorial jurisdiction in Palestine” Source: Amicus Curiae The Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust No. ICC-01/18 1/31 18 March 2020 ICC-01/18-101-Corr 19-03-2020 2/31 NM PT Document to be notified in accordance with regulation 31 of the Regulations of the Court to: The Office of the Prosecutor Counsel for the Defence Ms Fatou Bensouda - Prosecutor Mr James Stewart Legal Representatives of the Victims Legal Representatives of the Applicants Unrepresented Victims Unrepresented Applicants The Office of Public Counsel for Victims The Office of Public Counsel for the Defence States’ Representatives Applicant to participate as Amicus Curiae Professor Anne Bayefsky REGISTRY Victims Participation and Reparations Registrar Section Mr. Peter Lewis Philipp Ambach Victims and Witnesses Unit Other Mr. Nigel Verrill No. ICC-01/18 2/31 18 March 2020 ICC-01/18-101-Corr 19-03-2020 3/31 NM PT In accordance with the leave granted by paragraph (c) of the Court’s Order of February 20, 2020, the following observations pertain to the question of jurisdiction set forth in paragraph 220 of the Prosecutor’s Request pursuant to article 19(3) of the Rome Statute filed on January 22, 2020 (“the Prosecutor’s Request” or “the Request”).
    [Show full text]
  • REFUGEE the World
    A CRY FOR HOME WHEN YOU ARE A There are 13 million Palestinians scattered around REFUGEE the world. Half of them are refugees.1 The Nakba As many as 900,000 Palestinians became refugees when the State of Israel was established. Jewish paramilitary forces depopulated or destroyed more than 500 Palestinian towns and villages during the War of 1948.2 This expulsion and destruction is called the Nakba, or “the catastrophe,” by Palestinians. 1948 1950 1967 2017 The United Nations The United Nations Relief During the Six Day War, Approximately 13 million General Assembly passed and Works Agency for 300,000 Palestinians fled Palestinians are scattered Resolution 194 which Palestine Refugees in the from the West Bank and around the world, including called for the return and Near East (UNRWA) began Gaza to Jordan, Syria, in Palestine and Israel. compensation of refugees providing relief, education, Egypt and elsewhere. Half of them are refugees from the War of 1948.3 Israel primary health care, social Many of them were 1948 from 1948 or their affirmed the resolution but services and emergency refugees, uprooted for the descendants. refuses to enforce it. response to refugees. second time. What are the consequences of the Nakba? PROPERTY LOSS WITHOUT COMPENSATION Palestinian NO ASSISTANCE Palestinians who were displaced in 1948 within refugees lost almost everything they owned. Their “land, buildings, what is now Israel are not allowed to return to their original land, businesses, plantations, and bank accounts were expropriated [by even though they were granted Israeli citizenship and may live Israel] without compensation.”4 mere miles from their old homes.
    [Show full text]
  • Encountering the Nakba Slideshow Notes
    Encountering the Nakba: Slideshow Notes Slide 1: What is the Nakba? ● “Nakba” is an Arabic word that means “great disaster” or “catastrophe.” On November ​ 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly approved a plan to partition Mandate Palestine between Jews and [Palestinian] Arabs to follow the end of the British Mandate on May 14, 1948. ● About 750,000 [Palestinian] Arabs—the figure was later to be a major point of dispute, the Israelis officially speaking of some 520,000, the Palestinian themselves of 900,000-1,000,000—were ejected or fled from the areas that became the State of Israel ​ and resettled in the territories that became known as the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as Transjordan, Syria, and Lebanon. In addition, some people also fled to Egypt, Iraq, and the states of the Arabian Peninsula. The war’s end found less than half of the Palestinians in their original homes—fewer than 150,000 in Israel, some 400,000 in the West Bank, and 60,000 in the Gaza Strip. ● Palestinians commemorate the Nakba on May 15, the day after the anniversary of Israel’s independence (Yom HaAtzmaut), according to the Gregorian calendar. ● The Nakba is a foundational event in the history of Palestine and of Israel. While most Jews in Israel aren’t familiar with the term, it is a central element of Palestinian collective identity. Its absence/presence (as we will see below) structures the identity of Israeli society and its reality. In the course of this slideshow we will see that the Nakba is present not only in the memories of Palestinians both within and outside of Israel, but is a palpable, physical presence throughout Israel, if one only looks with fresh eyes.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 the Palestinian Political Discourse Between Exile and Occupation
    The Palestinian Political Discourse between Exile and Occupation Submitted by Emile Albadarin to the University of Exeter as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Middle East Politics In September 2013 This thesis is available for Library use on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. I certify that all material in this thesis which is not my own work has been identified and that no material has previously been submitted and approved for the award of a degree by this or any other University. Signature: ………………………………………………………….. 1 Abstract This dissertation is an attempt to explain the general principles behind the Palestinian political discourse that followed An-Nakba in 1948. This analysis will be carried out in three parts: the First Part starts with an introduction that lays out the questions, objectives and structure of this research before delving into the theoretical and analytical frameworks that guide the last two chronological parts of the dissertation. The Second Part focuses on the Palestinian political discourse between 1948 and the late 1980s. The Third Part examines the period that followed from the 1990s onward. While trying to distill discursive orienting-principles, the analysis will display how the discursive transformations evolved and it asks about their performative corollaries in everyday life, whether at the ideational or the spatial level. In addressing this question, this dissertation made two interdependent original contributions: the main contribution uncovers the main rules of formations and logics of the Palestinian representative discourse. That explains also the internal transformation and evolution of this discourse, and how these logics directed policymaking.
    [Show full text]
  • The Palestinians: Background and U.S. Relations
    The Palestinians: Background and U.S. Relations Updated March 18, 2021 Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov RL34074 SUMMARY RL34074 The Palestinians: March 18, 2021 Background and U.S. Relations Jim Zanotti The Palestinians are an Arab people whose origins are in present-day Israel, the West Specialist in Middle Bank, and the Gaza Strip. Congress pays close attention—through legislation and Eastern Affairs oversight—to the ongoing conflict between the Palestinians and Israel. The current structure of Palestinian governing entities dates to 1994. In that year, Israel agreed with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to permit a Palestinian Authority (PA) to exercise limited rule over Gaza and specified areas of the West Bank, subject to overarching Israeli military administration that dates back to the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. After the PA’s establishment, U.S. policy toward the Palestinians focused on encouraging a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, countering Palestinian terrorist groups, and aiding Palestinian goals on governance and economic development. Since then, Congress has appropriated more than $5 billion in bilateral aid to the Palestinians, who rely heavily on external donor assistance. Conducting relations with the Palestinians has presented challenges for several Administrations and Congresses. The United States has historically sought to bolster PLO Chairman and PA President Mahmoud Abbas vis-à-vis Hamas (a U.S.-designated terrorist organization supported in part by Iran). Since 2007, Hamas has had de facto control within Gaza, making the security, political, and humanitarian situation there particularly fraught. The Abbas-led PA still exercises limited self-rule over specified areas of the West Bank.
    [Show full text]